The FWC has given Santos, and AWU and the AMWU a recommended framework for consulting over pandemic-related proposals such as quarantining, suggesting they discuss current disputes concerning the gas giant's Cooper Basin workforce with a view to putting it into practice.
In a decision highlighting the difference between "genuinely trying to reach agreement" and "good faith bargaining", the FWC has rejected an HSU application for a protected action ballot order and found its own conduct wanting.
The FWC has for the first time retrospectively extended a single interest employer bargaining authorisation, avoiding the need for a group of schools to obtain a ministerial declaration after 14 months of negotiations and a successful second ballot.
The Morrison Government has agreed to drop proposed changes to Better Off Overall Test in the IR Omnibus Bill, which would have given the FWC a temporary power to approve substandard enterprise agreements for employers afflicted by the pandemic.
In what the CFMMEU is hailing as another win in a similar vein to the landmark Skene and Rossato rulings, the Federal Court has overruled the Attorney-General's Department's "parsimonious" refusal to include a 25% casual loading in a mineworker's FEG payout.
More than half of private sector clerks included in a survey to inform a possible coronavirus-driven award variation have been working from home since the middle of last year and almost three quarters of employers intend to let them continue doing so at least some of the time.
McDonald's, the sole corporation to make a submission to the Omnibus Bill inquiry, is calling for substantial amendments to casual conversion provisions and the BOOT, indicating the legislation's changes to the latter are insufficient to renew its interest in enterprise bargaining.
Aldi has overcome union resistance to lock in another four-year deal at a major distribution centre by again terminating a contentious earlier agreement more than two and a half years before its nominal expiry.
The FWC has warned the Morrison Government that its legislative plan to set a 21-day deadline for approval of enterprise agreements is "unnecessary and will have unintended consequences that are contrary to the interests of the bargaining parties".
Ahead of hearings in Townsville on Monday into the Omnibus Bill, Victoria's Andrews Government has described the legislation as a "lost opportunity", while WA's McGowan Government has urged the Morrison Government to abandon its provision to permit approval of short-term substandard agreements.
